Custom 4 link fabrication

[snaps]

I am almost through installing a ~60° triangulated 4 link I fabricated in my garage and wanted to take a bit to show off my handy work.

All the brackets I used came from Ruff Stuff Specialties unwelded and are either .250” or .375” thick.*I ended up torching off all the stock bracketry aside from the shock mounts. My LCA brackets also serve as coil buckets with retainer plates to keep the coil attached at full droop. The UCA bracket is welded to a full torsion box truss and mounts the UCA heims in a vertical position to eliminate axial loading of the bearing which supposedly increases the life of the joint and adds a bit more articulation capability as opposed to the horizontal mounting style.

The frame side brackets were all welded to a spreader plate for two reasons. 1) The plate serves to spread the point loads of the brackets out over a larger area than if they were welded directly to the unibody like the Clayton brackets and 2) its much easier to weld one plate to the frame than try and accurately position and weld two pairs of brackets in tight spaces. The frame side LCAs are pretty much fully enclosed in a skid plate and the UCAs are horizontally mounted so if I somehow bash something, ill hit a piece of plate and not a bolt head or nut.

The links are made from 2” .250 wall DOM. The idea was to be able to put the entire load of the vehicle on the links without any bending. *I’m not convinced the unibody can handle that sort of abuse if it were an impact load but its nice to know that should I have to drag myself over something that im not going to break a link. All the joints are 7/8” chromo heims with high misalignment spacers except for the axle side LCAs which are 1.25” chromo heims.

This is my first jeep and im pretty much winging it so please let me know if you see any weak points in my setup. Critiques are welcome.

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